HPCwire: Virtutech Announces Free Academic License for Simics

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July 21, 2006

Virtutech Announces Free Academic License for Simics

Virtutech, Inc., a provider of simulation-based solutions for software development and test, has announced that site licenses of Simics are now provided free of charge to academic organizations. The world's leading computer system simulation platform with the capability to simulate any computer system, ranging from single boards through multicore and multiprocessor computers to arbitrary networks of computers, Virtutech Simics enables comprehensive software development, test, system studies and computer architecture research in a simulated environment. A free academic site license provides students and researchers with the ability to easily deploy large-scale simulations of complex systems to create realistic commercial workloads for educational coursework and research. More than 1,000 universities worldwide are already using Virtutech Simics in classrooms and research related to operating systems, computer architecture and embedded systems.

"Cycle-accurate simulation of unmodified commercial applications and operating systems on new computer architectures is a critical tool for computer systems research and education," said Babak Falsafi, associate professor of ECE and co-director of the Computer Architecture Lab at Carnegie Mellon. "Using Simics, we have been able to showcase methodologies for fast, accurate and flexible performance modeling of multiprocessor servers. Without Virtutech's academic license and prompt technical support, we would not have been able to create such an infrastructure for computer architecture research and education."

According to Virtutech, Simics models hardware so accurately that the software cannot detect the difference between running on real production hardware and running on Simics. Any code, from application code to low-level code, such as operating systems, device drivers and protocol stacks, can run on Simics with extremely high performance. With Virtutech Simics providing full functional fidelity, university researchers can now focus their creativity on performance design and modeling. Simics also provides debugging and inspection abilities that are not offered on actual hardware platforms, and makes it possible to improve the depth and scope of teaching in computer systems.

"Typically, debugging operating systems on real hardware involves some sort of awkward remote debugging setup or weak built-in kernel debugger," said Dr. David Eckhardt, associate teaching professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. "The reason that large OS projects have not been done on real hardware is that it would force the student to spend too much time working with a limited debugger. Simics solves that problem, allowing courses to gain the clear benefits of teaching OS design on real hardware."

Thanks to its multiprocessor and multi-machine simulation abilities, Simics allows researchers and teachers to investigate, demonstrate and teach next-generation computer systems. Several universities have released add-on packages to Simics that provide the ability to quickly get started in productive research, making Simics a leading simulation platform for academic work in multiprocessors and multicore.

"Virtutech is committed to providing the most advanced simulation-based solutions to enterprise customers as well as teaching students and academic research," said John Lambert, president and CEO of Virtutech. "Simulation-based solutions have unique advantages, including determinism, non-intrusiveness and checkpoint capabilities, which far surpass the capability of traditional software development methods. Now, students have an opportunity to familiarize themselves early on with the most innovative and effective software development technique available today, better equipping them for the real-world challenges they will face after graduation."

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